OLD NAVAJOE
By Edward
Everett Dale*
About ten miles east and three miles north of the
of
Altns some seven steep mountain peaks rise abruptly from the
level plain to a maximum height of about a thousand feet above the
surrounding prairie. They extend north and south across the open
end of a horseshoe bend made by the North Fork of Red River as it
sweeps eastward and then back in a great loop some four or five
miles in diameter. These peaks were formerly called the Navajo
Mountains because of the tradition that about the middle of the last
century a great battle was fought a t their base between a war party
of Navajo, who had come east to prey upon the horse herds.of the
Comanches, and a band of warriors of the latter tribe, in which the
Navajo had been completely destroyed.
Perhaps a mile west and slightly north of the highest peak of
these mountains, on a low sandy hill, is a little wind-swept cemetery
enclosed by a wire fence. No human habitation is near and this grassgrown "God's acre" contains only a hundred or so graves, most
of them marked by very modest stones on which are usually carved
only the names and dates of the birth and death of those buried
there. Here lie the bodies of more than one man who died "with his
boots on" before the blazing six gun of an opponent and of others
who died peacefully in bed. Here also lie all that is mortal of little
children, and of tired pioneer women who came west with their husbands seeking a home on the prairie only to find in its bosom that
rest which they had so seldom known in life.
Half a mile south of this small cemetery are cultivated fields
where the plowman often turns up bits of glass and broken china or
scraps of rusty and corroded metal and, if he is new to the community, he may be deeply puzzled as to their presence here so remote
f r o m any dwelling. In such cases inquiry of some old settler may
reveal to the curious individual that these fields were once the site
of t h e thriving little town of Navajoe. Nothing remains of Navajoe
today. It is one with Nineveh and Tyre, flintlock guns, side saddles,
baby golf, and all those other things that lie within the boundaries
of t h e land of Used to Be. Yet, in its time Navajoe was a flourishing center of commerce with half a dozen stores and other business
establishments and the dwellings of a score or more of families.
Member of the Publication Committee and of the Board of Directors of the
Oklahoma Historical Society for more than twenty-five years, Dr. Edward Everett
Dale, well known Oklahoma historian and author of many historical volumes, is
Rewarch Profemor of History in &e Univeisity of Oklahoma, Norman.-Ed.
Since the nearest railroad point was Vernon, Texas, nearly fifty
miles to the south and there was none to the north, east o r west for
from eighty to a hundred and twenty-five miles, Navajoe had a vast
trade territory and was the southern gateway to a huge though
thinly peopled empire. I n consequence, it was to some extent both
a business and social center for a n enormous area. To i t came settlers from their prairie claims often many miles away to barter
butter and eggs for sugar and coffee or to purchase with their few
hard-earned dollars shoes, dry goods, or clothing. Here also at
times came the boss of a herd of cattle to the trail running a few
miles west of town bringing the chuck wagon to replenish his stock
of provisions before entering upon the long stretch of unsettled lands
extending north to Kansas.
In addition there often came a band of Comanche or Kiowa
Indians to pitch their round tepees near the north edge of town.
Here they remained for two or three days strolling about from
store to store clad in their bright blankets or shawls and moccasins,
spending their "grass money" for groceries or red calico, selling in
contravention of law their annuity issue blankets, coats, trousers,
and coarse "squaw shoes" for a price determined by their own
needs or wants rather than by the value of the articles sold. Above
all the men spent many hours playing monte with the three or four
professional gamblers who were permanent residents of the town,
dealing out the cards on a blanket spread on the ground inside the
tepee while the women looked on or pottered about camp cooking,
bringing water from the public well, or busying themselves with other
chores.
To Navajoe also came at times young people to attend a dance
or party given by some citizen of the little town or a box supper or
literary society held at the small unpainted school house. Among
these would-be merrymakers might be included a long haired, unshaven cowhand from some remote line camp on the nearby Indian
reservation. Riding in with his "good clothes" in a sack strapped
behind his saddle, he usually put u p his h'orse a t the little wagon
yard and surreptitiously made his way to the store to buy a white
shirt and thence to the barber shop hoping against hope that he
might not meet one of the girls of town until he had been able to
make considerable improvement i n his personal appearance. Once
in the barber shop, he demanded "the works" and emerged an hour
later clad in his best raiment with his hair cut, shampooed and
"toniced" and his face shaved, bayrummed, and powdered. I n fact,
he was so transformed that his partner who had remained in the
camp on Sandy, East Otter, or Deep Red, sometimes because of a
reluctance to come within easy reach of the long a m of the law,
would hardly have been able to recognize him either by sight or
smell! !
The foundations of Navajoe were laid about 1886 when two
brothers-in-law, W. H. Acers and H. P. Dale, established the first
general store, no doubt hoping to get some Indian trade, as well as
to provision the outfits of trail herds on the way north, and a h
t o supply the needs of settlers that were by this time beginning to
come into the area in considerable numbers. Eventually Acers and
Dale applied for the establishment of a post office under the name
of "Navajo" but the Post Office Department insisted on adding an
a4 ' 9
s to the name to avoid possible confusion with another Navajo
post office in Arizona so it was officially recorded as Navajoe.
Undoubtedly, the spot for this &re was selected largely because of the proximity of the great Kiowa-Comanche Indian reservation whose border was only three miles away and of the cattle trail
which passed four miles to the west. I n addition it was in the
midst of fertile lands and the high mountains furnished a picturesque
and convenient landmark for. the embryo town. There were in addition the promotional activities of the man who was in some respects the father of Navajoe-the professional booster, J. S. Works.
Navajoe lay within the limits of the area bounded by the two
Red rivers and the hundredth meridian which was claimed by Texas
and had been organized by that state as a county as early as 1860.
T h i ~claim the government of the United States disputed asserting
that the real Red River was the South Fork of that stream and in
consequence Cfreer County was really outside the limits of Texas
and so part of the public domain of the United States.
Joseph S. Works was a typical pioneer of the promoter type.
He was a tall, spare individual who always wore a buckskin shirt
and his hair in long curls reaching to his shoulders. Because of his
peculiar dress he was commonly known as "Buckskin Joe". Apparently he became interested in the Qreer County lands about 1887
or possibly earlier. At any rate he came to the site of Navajoe about
that time and erected for himself and family a small house of the
''half dugout type " which he asserted cost only thirty-f ive dollars
to build. In addition he built a hotel to accommodate land seekers.
Ha was energetic and ambitious, with wide contacts and ample experience in land promotion. His enthusiasm for Cfreer County, particularly that part of it lying about Navajoe, was boundless. The
recently completed Fort Worth and Denver Railroad extending
northwest across Texas was only twelve or fifteen miles south of the
Red River. It was plain that settlers of Qreer County must pnrchase supplies from merchants of the little towns along the line eold
to the latter by jobbers in Fort Worth. Works accordingly visited
that city and told such an alluring tale of the future of Greer
County that Texas busineas supplied him with funds for the print
ing of many thousands of copies of his little publication, Bwkski1c
Joe's Emigrants' Chide, which was issued monthly for about a year.
In this he extolled the beauty and fertility of Greer County in
general and the area about Navajoe in particular.'
perhaps Works had considerable influence in attracting settlers
to the region but though he remained at Navajoe for a year or more,
he was too restless to stay long in any one place or to devote himself
exclusively to any one project. I n addition to booming the settlement of GIreer County, he also engaged in townsite promotion and
diligently sought to develop the town of Oklaunion a few miles east
of Vernon, with the object of making it the chief supply point for
the Greei County settlers. Doomed to disappointment here, "Buckskin Joe" after the construction of the Rock Island Railroad across
Oklahoma in 1891, turned his attention to booming the town of
Comanche near the western border of the Chickasaw country and
to urging the opening of the Kiowa-Comanche Indian reservation to
settlement. While his promotional activities never proved too successful, they seem to have netted him a living until 1908 when he
was granted a pension by the United States Government for his services in the Civil War.
The store built and operated by Acers and Dale was quickly
followed by other business establishments. Settlers were coming in,
probably stimulated by the activities of Works, and taking claims in
the community which they held by squatter's rights despite the
warning of the President of the United States that the title to lands
in Greer County was clouded and in consequence they might lose
their lands. In addition the leasing of the lands of the KiowaComanche Indian reservation t o cattlemen gave those Indiana considerable sums of "grass money" which they were eager to spend
and Navajoe was their nearest trading point. Also the ranchmen
purchased supplies for their men as did the foremen of herds on the
trail. I t was not long until the little town became a considerable
center of business as judged by frontier standards.
The creation of the post office helped very considerably. Mail
service from Vernon, Texas, was at first tri-weekly which the periodic
1 The following item appeared in The Emigrant Guide, Navajoe, C m i County,
for June 1888 (bound volume in Newspaper Files, Oklahoma Historical Society)
under the heading "Buckskin Joe's Texas Oklahoma Colony," p. 2, wl. 3:
"Founded in December, 1885, located at Navaja Mountain, Gner Co., in 1887.
Membership 400 families, no assessments.
"Terms of membership in full. $5.00 including lot in Navajoe. One dollar paid
on application for membership, with guide and full instructions and rates for coming to Navajoe. T h e balance due when lot is u l s t e d . Som; of the best lots in
Navajoe can be secured by joining the colony and building.
The location of Navajoe was shown in T. 3 N., R. 19 W., on map of Oklahoma
Territory, 1891, Department of Interior, General Land Office, in Volume 2, p. 952,
Supreme Court of the United States, October term, 1894, No. 2, Original, The Unit&
Stotcs
us. Tire State of Texas.-Ed.
rises of Red River caused many local wits to assert only meant that
the carrier went to Vernon one week and "tried to get back the
next." Eventually, however, a daily service was maintained, the
carrier driving only to Red River where he. met and exchanged mail
bags with another coming out from Vernon.
One corner of the establishment of Acers and Dale was partitioned off for the post office and the arrival of the mail about eight
o'clock in the evening usually found most of the male population of
the village, together with a number of near-by settlers, and a few
cowpunchers, assembled and patiently waiting in the store. Here
they sat on the counter, smoked cigarettes, chewed tobacco, and told
yarns or indulged in practical jokes while waiting for "the mail to
be put up". Once this was accomplished and the window opened
each and every one walked up to it and solemnly inquired: "Anything for me?" Few of them ever got any mail; most of them
would have been utterly astonished if they ever had got any mail
but asking for it was a part of a regular ritual and missing the
experience was a near tragedy. All of which seems strange and
a little pathetic too. I n few cases did anyone in the world care
enough for one of these men to write him a letter but they refused
to admit it even to themselves!
North of this pioneer store another mas soon built by Bennight
Brothers, John and Lum. I t was a long, red building housing a
stock of general merchandise but it did not attract nearly as many
of either cust~mersor loafers as did the establishment of Acers and
Dale. In addition to his activities as a merchant, John Bennight
also served for a time as deputy sheriff.
Beyond this second store was Ed Clark's saloon. I t had a long
shiny bar extending along the south side complete with brass rail
in front and a good sized mirror on the wall behind it. On this wall
also hung a large sign with this legend:
Since man to man has bin so unjust
I scarsely know in hoom to trust
I've trusted meny to my sorrow
So pay today, I'll trust tomorrow.
In addition to the bar, the room had two or three tables where
the town's loafers and visiting cowhands sat and played poker,
seven-up, or dominoes. The saloon received considerable patronage
but the church-going element among the settlers regarded it as a
den of iniquity and undcr the local option laws eventually voted it
out and the town became dry except for individual importations and
such patent medicines, as Peruna, lemon and ginger, "electric
bitters", and other so-called patent medicines purchased a t the drug
store.
This last named business establishment stood a short distance
north of the saloon and was owned and operated by W. H. H. Crsnford, who sold drugs, compounded prescriptions, and did a considerable business in notions, cosmetics, and toilet articles. Among other
things he sold considerable patent medicine of high alcoholic content to Indians since under the federal laws they could not be supplied with liquor. At the holiday season, he always laid i n a considerable stock of Christmas goods consisting of dressing cases, manicure sets, shaving mugs, mustache cups, autograph and photograph
albums, and toys. Cranford was in Navajoe but not of it! H e
was a slightly corpulent individual who always wore a neatly pressed
suit, white celluloid collar and four-in-hand tie and was entirely
lacking in any sense of humor or interest in what passed for social
or civic affairs. I n short he was in no sense a frontiersman. H e
was cold, dignified, and unresponsive, and was alleged to have
poisoned marauding cats which was probably untrue.
At the extreme opposite end of the street from the drug store
was the little grocery store of John Brown and his wife. It did
little business and Brown spent most of his time in warm weather
sitting in a chair in front of his place of business taking his ease,
his bright red socks revealing a brilliant splash of color between the
bottoms of his trouser legs and his shoes. Some of the town's
loafers offered three boys a pound of candy each if they would go
down there, one by one a t twenty minute intervals, call Brown aside
and gravely ask what he would take for his red socks but, though
the lads talked about it enthusiastically and planned it again and
again, they were never able to get up enough courage to carry i t
through.
All of the buildings named were in a row running north and
south, and all faced the east. Most of them had a porch in front
with a roof suppo~tedby wooden columns and between these pillars
was usually placed a long seat made of two-inch lumber where
"gentlemen of leisure" could sit during the long summer afternoons and whittle to their hearts' content. In cold weather they
assembled inside about a pot bellied stove fed with wood hauled
contrary to law from the near-by Indian reservation. Here they
told stories, played checkers, rolled and smoked cigarettes, or chewed
tobacco and spat in the general direction of a flat box half filled
with sand. Here practical jokes were planned and sometimes executed and the news and gossip of the little community exchanged.
Across the street from the drug store was the home of Dr. H. C.
Redding which also contained his office. Redding was for a time
the only doctor of the village and its surrounding country. He was
an elderly- man with long whiskers, who hated Cranford with an
intense hatred because the latter often prescribed and sold medicine
when so requested by an ailing settler thus depriving the doctor
of a patient and a fee which he felt should rightly be his.
South of the doctor's h o r n and directly across from the d o o n
was a small unpainted church of rough lumber originally a dance hall
and skating rink but bought and transformed through the efforts of
the more spiritual members of the community. Church and saloon
faced one another like two duellists each battling for a cause as indeed they were. Here services were held every Sunday when a
minister was available and a revival meeting was usually held each
summer. Sunday afternoons people also met at the church sometimes to sing and Christmas festivities with a community tree were
usually held there.
With the exception of a little barber shop north of John Brown's
store, these were the only buildings on Navajoe's main street during the earlier years of the town's history. Some two hundred yards
southeast of a central point in this row of business houses was the
City Hotel, originally built by Buckskin Joe. This was a large unpainted building displaying a big sign which read : "Meals 25 cents."
Near one corner was a tall post crowned by a large bell. Aroupd
noon and about six in the evening Aunt Matilda Smith or her
husband Uncle Tom who were proprietors of the establishment came
out and pulled the bell rope vigorously to call their hungry boarders up town to "come and get it".
Just as pigs leisurely rooting in the woods will a t the call of
their owner's voice suddenly stop to listen and then with flapping
ears race madly for the barn lot, so did every unattached man in
town at the first sound of the bell drop whatever he was doing and
start in R sort of lope down the path leading to the hotel gathering
speed at every jump until he came to a skidding halt before Aunt
Matilda's well-spread table. Despite her low rates, Aunt Matilda
always "set a good table" and in a community where beef sold at
five or six cents a pound, frying chickens at fifteen cents each, eggs
at five or ten cents a dozen, and butter at "a bit" a pound, some
profits were derived from meals even at twenty-five cents each.
Prices were ridiculously low and money almost unbelievably scarce.
Flour could be purchased at from a dollar to a dollar and r
half a hundred pounds and settlers hauled sweet potatoes forty-five
milss to the railroad and peddled them out among the residents of
Vernon a t fifty cents a bushel. As for actual cash, it is doubtful
if some men holding down a claim ever saw fifteen dollars in red
money a t any one time throughout an entire year.
The ranchmen, as the Herrings, Stinson and Waggoner, all of
whom leased lands for grazing on the Indian reservation, were of
course well to do and their cowboys who drew wages of twenty to
thirty dollars a month usually had a little money but most settlers
were extremely poor. Occasionally one would get a few days work
building fence or plowing fire guards for some cattlemen or would
sell a rancher a little feed but snms derived from such sources
were small. Some raised a small crop of wheat but it must be hauled
forty-five miles to the railroad where it usually brought only fifty
to sixty cents a bushel and since teams were usually small and there
was the wide sandy river to cross, it was seldom possible to haul
more than twenty to twenty-five bushels in a load and the trip
consumed three to four days.
In the winter, a few men eked out a small income by poisoning
and skinning wolves or from hunting prairie chickens and quail but
coyote skins sold for only fifty cents and prairie chickens and quail
only twenty-five and ten cents respectively at the railroad. Two or
three young fellows broke horses for the Indians usually at a price
of one dollar for each year of the animal's age which was anything
but easy money.
Even though most people were very poor, however, life a t
Navajoe and in the surrounding community was colorful and varied.
As a rule it was characterized by abuudant leisure. Merchants, so
called, were seldom kept busy waiting on customers and in consequence had ample time to talk, exchange gossip, and philosophize
with one another or with the visitors who frequented their places
of business usually only for purely social purposes. The three or
four professional gamblers who specialized in playing monte with
the Indians, or with an occasional easterner with money who might
be passing through, had long periods of inaction during which
they played cards with one another merely for pleasure and to
keep in practice or with the local residents, or two or three cowhands. Every winter three or four cowboys laid off until spring
would come to Navajoe and loaf for two or three months visiting
with their friends, playing poker or dominoes in the saloon, "getting
up" and attending dances as often as possible and in general enjoying a little vacation until time for spring work to start and the
boss called them back to riding again. All of these men together
with a few bachelor claim holders spent a large share of time sitting
around in the stores or saloon, telling jokes or stories, or devoted
themselves to arranging dances and candy breakings, courting the
few girls, and as a rule enjoyed life hugely.
While in some respects the summer season may have been a bit
more dull, it too was not without attractions. Picnic parties to
climb the mountain and enjoy the magnificent view from its sammit with dinner at some beauty spot a t the foot was a favorite diversion. Groups would also make all day trips to the sand hilk along
the river to gather wild plums or to Otter or Elk Creek for a fish
fry. A11 day singings with dinner on the ground were common
and a two-weeks revival meeting was welcomed by many people
quite as much for its social as for its spiritual eignificance.
Like every other frontier town, Navajoe had its share of
unusual and picturesque characters. Among these was Uncle Billy
Warren, a mall, dried up old feUow who had been a scout for the
United States Army in earlier days. He spoke the Comanche and
Kiowa languages and was regarded as a man of substance since
he drew a pension of thirty dollars a month as he said "just as
regular as a goose goes to water". Another interesting character was
a gambler known as "eat 'em up Jake" because he was alleged to
have once found himself with five aces and when his eagle-eyed
opponent demanded a showdown, Jake crumpled and ate the extra
card to avoid being caught redhanded.
For a considerable time an elderly remittance man named Harlan lived at Navajoe boarding at the hotel and spending a good
deal of time around the saloon. He seemed to have considerable
education and when drunk would talk eloquently using numerous
legal terms which caused him to be commonly called "Judge." One
day the postmaster was much surprised to receive a letter from
Justice John Marshall Harlan of the United States Supreme Court inquiring about the welfare of his brother whom the Justice had
learned was now living at Navajoe. The postmaster promptly
answered the letter assuring Justice Harlan that his brother seemed
to be in good health, was comfortably situated, and that he was
highly respected when sober and well cared for when drunk so it
was not necessary to feel any uneasiness about him. No reply
was ever received and eventually "Judge" Harlan left Navajoe
and drifted away no doubt to some other little frontier town that
also had saloons and congenial company."
Still another interesting character was a young man commonly
called "Diamond Dick" because he reached Navajoe wearing numerous large diamonds set in rings, shirt studs, cuff links, and a tie
pin. Apparently he was the wayward son of a wealthy father
somewhere in the East though he was quite reticent about his family
and former house. He did not drink anything like as much as did
the old "Judge" but played poker for modest stakes, rode about
with the cowpunchers, attended dances, and seemed to have a good
time for several months after which he too departed for some unknown destination.
One day a young man came up on the mail hack from Vernon
who said that he came from New York City and so was promptly
ZThe following news item appeared in The Emigrant Guide for June, 1888,
op. cit., under the heading "Our New Secretary," p. 2, col. 4:
"Judge James Harlan, of Kentucky, has cast his lot with the settlers of Navajoe,
and as secretary and treasurer of the colony will devote his time to the up-building
of Greer. Judge Harlan's high character as a citizen, his ability as a lawyer, and
long experience as a judge is strong assurance that any movement with which he
is connected will command the confidence of the public and government authorities.
He is about the same age of his brother, who is justice in the United States Supreme
Court, and esteemed equal in his knowledge of law. We welcome the judge to
Navajoe."-Ed.
nicknamed "New York". H e established a little store stocked with
men's clothing but was active in local sporting circles and frankly
stated that he had come to the West for the sole purpose of "catching suckers".
Looking about for some means of turning a more or less honest
dollar, he thought he had found i t when two drifting cowpunchers
visited him and explained that they wanted to go to New Mexico
but had a considerable number of horses which they would sell
cheap as they needed money for the trip. They added that the animals -were ranging on the Indian reservation across the river but
they would be glad to show them to him. "New York?' gladly
accompanied the two young fellows who showed him some fifty head
of excellent saddle horses all bearing what they said was their
brand. When a price was named which was clearly only a fraction of their real value, "New York" jumped a t the chance of
making some easy money and quickly closed the deal. The cowhands gave him a bill of sale, received their money and departed,
but when their new owner rounded up the horses and started for
Vernon to sell them, he met a keen-eyed cowboy working for one
of the ranchmen grazing cattle on the reservation who noted that
every horse bore the well-known brand of his employer. This cowhand notified the deputy sheriff and "New York" was promptly
arrested and lodged in jail where he died a few weeks before the
date set for his trial.
Another very interesting character was J. M. Ferris, commonly
known as Jim who lived with his wife and some nine children in
a three-room house three-quarters of a mile south of town. Ferris
had been a Texas Ranger, secret service man, and deputy sheriff,
and so was a professional peace officer trained i n that hardest of
all schools, the Texas-Mexican border. He became deputy sheriff
in that part of the county after the departure of the Bennights
and served as the representative of law and order i n a wide region.
He was a spare, blue-eyed man of medium height with a gentle,
kindly voice and who always walked, Indian-like, with a soft, c a t
like tread. Those who knew him best aid that when his blue eyes
began to shine and his voice fairly dripped sweetness i t was time
to climb a tree and ask the reason later I
When Tom Anderson, a wild nineteen year old boy, shot his
employer through the shoulder and fled on foot for the Indian
reservation carrying his Winchester with him, Deputy Jim set out
on horseback in pursuit armed with a long shotgun strapped t o his
saddle. Ferris overtook the young chap about noon but Tom had
his own ideas about submitting to arrest. A t two hundred and
fifty yards he shot Jim through the thigh inflicting a bad flesh
wound and would have killed him with the second shot if the deputy
had not swung over behind his horse. The lad then took refuge in
a thicket and Ferris leaving a cowpnncher to keep watch at a safe
distance rode home, dressed his wound and then rode u p town to
gather a posse.
It was Saturday afternoon and almost the entire population
of the community, masculine, feminine, and canine, had assembled
as usual in Navajoe. Every man and boy who could find a horse
and any kind of shooting iron followed Jim and to the number of
something like a hundred they bombarded the young outlaw for
three hours without scoring a hit. It was not a one-sided battle,
however. From a shallow pit he had scooped out in the thicket,
the youngster returned the fire with an uncanny skill, putting a
bullet through the hat of one of his too inquisitive besiegers and
missing two or three more by such a narrow margin as to make
them decidedly uncomfortable. Finally, running short of ammunition, he tied a handkerchief to the stock of his rifle and lifting it
above the tops of the bushes, came out and surrendered. He was
promptly lodged in jail from which he escaped a month later and
disappeared to parts unknown.
The people of the county seat town of Mangum, thirty-five
miles away, took up a collection for thc benefit of Deputy Ferris
and sent him thirty-five dollars. J i m returned the money the same
d.ay, accompanied by a brief note thanking these people for their
kindness but asserting that the only expense incurred as a result
of his wound had been fifteen cents for a bar of Castile soap and
ten cents for a bottle of turpentine. He added that he had been
able to pay this himself but if he had not, he was quite sure that
some of his near-by neighbors would have been glad to make him a
loan. Of such independent stuff were the early Oklahoma pioneers made!
It is impossible to name any considerable number of the many
picturesque and colorful individuals who lived for a time in or near
Old Navajoe. Among them were two brothers-both
physiciansDoctors Joe and Dee Reynolds who settled in the little town and
became for a time competitors of Doctor Redding. None of the
three had much practice for the people of the community were unusually strong and healthy. Any who were not had long before
been weeded out. Doctor Joe added to his income by hunting prairie chickens, hanging the birds u p on the north side of his house
until he had what his wife called: "a real good chance of them"
when he sent them to Vernon by some passing freight wagon.
I n addition there were the elderly Mr. Ruder who became of
his age was always Santa Claus a t the community Christmas tree,
and Yeakley Brothers who grazed seven or eight hundred sheep on
the mountains and were the only shepherds in the entire region.
There were also John Passmore and Joe Lee Jackson who eked
out a precarious living playing monte or poker with the Indians,
Dave Davis, bronc buster extraordinary, Old Man Fink who lived
for music, was always present when people met to sing, and who
had been known to leave his team standing in the field while he
hurried to the house and wrote the words of a new song to be sung
to the tune of m
e
n the Roses Come Agairr! Some were good,
Christian men and others worthless men but all were generous,
unselfish, and kind in their dealings with others. Almost without
exception they were hospitable, deeply respectful toward all women,
and every man of them would have gladly given the shirt off his
back to someone in need, though it must be admitted that no person
in his right mind would, as a rule, have wanted the shirt of any
one of them!
Tragedy occasionally stalked the town's one street as when
George Gordon shot and killed W. N. Howard. The latter was a
one-armed man from the hills of Kentucky who had brought his
family to Greer County and settled on a claim about three miles
north of Navajoe. The basis of the quarrel between the two men
has long been forgotten but both were hot tempered and dangerous.
One afternoon they met on the street and Howard reached for his
gun only to discover that he had left i t a t home, and Gordon shot
him. Despite the fact that his opponent was unarmed, Gordon was
acquitted, on the grounds of self defense, the jury probably reasoning that a man who sees his adversary reach for his hip is justified
in assuming that the latter has a gun and cannot be expected to wait
long enough to discover his mistake.
The town had periods of excitement, too. One of these was in
1891 when Chief Polant of the Kiowa tribe was killed a few miles
north of Navajoe by a young cowpuncher. The belligerent old chief
had left the reservation and crossed the river into Greer County to
demand an explanation of why some of his people had been refused
a gift of beeves. He emphasized his remarks by drawing his Winchester from its scabbard whereupon the young cowhand promptly
shot him through the head and then made his way to Navajoe to
relate what he had done and ask for protection. A large number
of Kiowas quickly armed themselves and demanded that the young
man be surrendered to them. This was, of course, refused but an
Indian war seemed imminent and the near-by settlers hastily .brought
their wives and children to Navajoe for rsafety. All the men in the
community gathered at town armed to the teeth and prepared to
defend themselves and their families from the threatened attack.
News of the affair reached Colonel Hugh L. Scott, the Commanding
Officer at Fort Sill who led his cavalry in a forced march to the
Kiowa camp on Elk Creek and at last persuaded the angry Kiowas
that it would be folly to start a war which could only result in
their own destruction.
Within a few years considerable changes came to the town of
Navajoe. "Buckskin Joe " had departed in search of a more profit
able venture in promotion. The opening of the Cheyenne-Arapaho
reservation to settlement on April 19, 1892, took several citizens of
Navajoe to that region. Among these were Tom and Aunt Matilda
Smith who pulled down the hotel, hauled the lumber to Cordell, and
rebuilt it in that newly opened town, and H. P. Dale who sold his
interest in the store to his partner and took up a homestead in the
"Cheyenne Country." W. H. Acers operated the store for more
than a year but with the opening of the Cherokee Outlet on September 16, 1893, he sold it and drifted up to that region.
The Post Office was transferred to W. H. H. Cranford who
enlarged his store, and put in a stock of dry goods and clothing on
one side, retaining the shelves on the other side for drugs, medicines,
and notions. He also added a room for the post office and its lobby
and finished up a n attic room above the store where he kept surplus merchandise, empty packing cases, and a stock of coffins of
assorted sizes.
About the middle nineties a wave of outlawry swept over Greer
County and the surrounding region when Red Buck Weightman,
Joe Beckham, and two or three of their comrades appeared in that
area and turned their attention to robbing stores, stealing horses,
and other forms of deviltry. Cranford as postmaster often had
considerable sums of money in his safe since there was no bank
nearer than Vernon and remittances were usually made by money
order. I n consequence he eventually developed an almost morbid
fear of being robbed. I n anticipation of this he not only buckled
on a heavy Colts revolver the latter part of every afternoon but
also installed a bed in the attic and hired a young man as assistant
in the store and post office with the provision that he should go
armed and sleep i n the attic at night among the coffins! In addition he often talked of installing a wood vise behind the counter
beside the opening leading to the rest of the store and clamping a
cocked pistol in i t when he locked up a t night with a string attached to its trigger, looped around a nail behind it, and stretched
across this opening. With such a device prepared, he declared
that anyone breaking in who started to go behind the counter
would shoot himself through the legs.
Evidently he considered any such protection unnecessary so
long as he had a clerk sleeping in the attic but in 1895 Cranford
lost the post office and decided to remove to Cloud Chief in the
Cheyenne Country and open a drugstore there. Here he fitted
up his long-talked-of booby trap for malefactors but unfortunately
his wife became suddenly ill one night and he ran hastily down to
the store to get some medicine for her and in his excitement completely forgot the product of his own ingenuity. It worked all too
well! Cranford shot a leg off and like Peter Stuyvesant of historic fame, was doomed to stump through the remaining years of
his life on a wooden leg! Moreover, h e lacked even the consolation
of the sympathy of his neighbors since no one who knew his story
.
ever felt particularly sorry for him.
As more and more of the first business men and residents of
Navajoe departed, others came in to take their places. I n 1896 the
Supreme Court in the case of the U.S. us. Texas held that the South
Fork of Red River was the principal stream and therefore Greer
County was not a part of Texas. This was followed by a special
act of Congress attaching the region to Oklahoma Territory. With
the cloud removed from land titles, many more settlers came in to
take up homesteads and the little town grew in importance as a
business center. Bennight Brothers sold their store and returned
to Indian Territory. The church-going part of the population voted
out the saloon under local option laws and Ed Clarke returned to
his old home state of Kentucky.
George Blalock came from Texas with his family, purchased the
claim joining the town on the south and opened a general merchandise store in the building formerly occupied by the establishment of Acers and Dale. W. 2. Peters replaced Cranford as postmaster, and a new hotel was built on the main street of town. John
Brown's wife died and he sold his little stock of groceries and
drifted away to parts unknown.
Blalock's store remained the chief business enterprise for some
years but he was eventually elected County Sheriff and removed to
Mangum which was the county seat. Other business establishments
with new owners followed one another in rapid succession, though
a few old timers remained. Conn and Higgins opened a general
merchandise store in the former Cranfcrd building. A hardware
store was established by the Martin Brothers which eventually came
to be operated by the two Ricks Brothers. Conn and Higgins sold
their business and Blackwell and Akin came in and opened a dry
goods and clothing store followed b y Bailey Brothers with a stock
of general merchandise. An elderly individual named White operated a small grocery store. A little wagon yard was built, a meat
market, a pool hall, and a new barber shop were established. The
little box-like school house made of twelve inch boards with knot
holes which the older tobacco chewing boys, endowed with a spirit
of daring and a sure aim, felt had been placed there by Divine Providence, was torn down and a new one of two rooms erected a t the
western edge of town. Ben Hawkins continued for years to operate
his blacksmit,h shop at the same old stand with Old Man Chivers
who sang hymns to the accompaniment of his ringing anvil as his
chief competitor. Several new residences were erected where the
business men lived with their families and a few settlers removed to
town in the winter in order to send their children to school.
Life in Navajoe was still varied and colorful and was not without its frontier characteristics but gradually changes were creeping
.
in. Cowhands and ranchmen were less in evidence and moet of the
men who came in to "do a little trading" or merely for the social
stimulus derived from "going to tom" were homesteaders or their
grown up sons. More farming was carried on in the surrounding
country and a little more sophistication became apparent. Men
remained largely in the majority in the community and an attractive young woman still had plenty of suitors but not to the extent
apparent in earlier years when the appearance of a new girl in town
o r anywhere near it was an event of major importance.
I n the late nineties, Navajoe was struck by a mining boom
which brought in a considerable number of new people most of them
entirely unlike any of the earlier inhabitants of the town. The
Navajo mountains were the most southwestern group of the Wichitas
which extend east some forty miles or nearly to Fort Sill. For
many years old timers had solemnly asserted that: "Thar's gold
in them thar hills." There were legends of lost Spanish mines and
i t was even declared that the Indians knew where vast stores of gold
could be found, a rumor which gained credence by the average Indian's tendency to make sport of the white man.
About 1896 there appeared in the little town a lean bewhiskered individual about forty years old named Edson L. Hewes. He
came from Nevada where he had been a prospector and could see a
color of gold in any pan of d i r t regardless of its source that he decided to wash out. Hewes was a remittance man receiving every
week a money order for two dollars from the New Orleans post office since he had once lived i n that city and apparently still had
relatives there. He had studied law, had been a journalist, and apparently a good many other things but for years had followed the
open road more or less as a hobo. From Nevada he had marched
on Washington with the state's contingent of Coxey's army and was
an ardent champion of democracy, and the under dog and the bitter
foe of the "interests" and of all aristocrats. He had dreams of
writing a book called The Wandering American, but apparently
could never get around to it. Hewes was certain that there were
rich deposits of gold in the Wichitas so staked some claims in the
Navajo mountains, found a worthless young fellow as partner, and
fitted up a shallow cave among the giant rocks of his favorite claim
as a dwelling place. He and his partner worked diligently a t panning the mountain dirt,' carried their groceries on their backs from
the Navajoe stores and, while dining on cheese and crackers, talked
of the great wealth to be theirs in the near future!
Other so-called miners came in--some with wives as worn and
faded as the dresses they w o w a n d a troop of ragged children.
More were single men, most of them old and virtually all shabby and
unkempt and without money, property, or ambition to work at
anything except digging for gold. They included mch men as Lige
Williams, Robert Rayel, the Petersons, father and son, a n d a number of others.
Some of these told colorful tales of their profitable mining experiences in the past. One asserted that i n a remote canyon of the
Rocky Mountains he had once turned over a rock with a crowbar
and found thirty-three thousand dollars in gold nuggets beneath it.
One such experience would doubtless keep the average man busy turning over rocks for the rest of his life! Another shabby, long-whiskered
old man who, now that the saloon had been closed, spent most of
his scanty, occasional funds a t the drug store for Peruna at a dollar
a bottle was alleged to have once sold a mining claim in Colorado
for two hundred thousand dollars. What he had done with the
money no one knew but some one was heard to remark that it
probably went for two hundred thousand bottles of Peruna!
The Navajo Mountains not offering sufficient field for their
activities, the miners began to cross the river and operate in the
rough mountains on the Indian reservation along the headwaters
of Otter Creek. Here they staked mining claims, built little shacks
and, regardless of the fact that United States lam prohibited such
occupation of Indian lands, eventually secured the establishment of
a post office. It was called Wildman in honor of a prosperous citizen
of one of the near-by Greer County towns who had given some aid
and encouragement to mining ventures. Since the miners frequently shifted the center of their activities the post office was placed on
wheels and so resembled a field kitchen or the cook shack of a
threshing crew. I t followed its patrons about over a considerable
area and in consequence, the mail carrier coming out from Navajoe
two or three times a week always started without knowing his exact
destination. I n the early summer of 1901 a troop of cavalry was
sent out from Fort Sill to destroy the miners' shacks and escort their
owners to the reservation line where they were left with a warning
not to return.
The mining boom collapsed and was succeeded by something of
much greater importance-the
opening of the Kiowa-Comanche
Indian lands to white settlement. This occurred late in the summer of 1901 by a lottery. All persons desirous of securing a homestead in that region were required to register their names either a t
Port Sill or E l Reno. Cards bearing their names were then placed
in great hollow wheels, thoroughly mixed and drawn out and the
160 acre tracts, to the number of 13,000, were selected by the lucky
registrants in the order that their names were drawn.
Virtually every young man about Navajoe who was twenty-one
or more years of age hastened to Fort Sill to register since there was
no longer any government land of value left unclaimed in Greer
County. They were accompanied by many older men who had
come into the Navajoe community too late to secure land there. It
seemed that the opening of these Kiowa-Comanche lands to settlement should have greatly aided the growth and prosperity of
Navajoe located so close to their border by rounding out the town's
trade territory and bringing in much new business.
As a matter of fact it was the beginning of the end. Not a few
of the citizens of the town or the surrounding country secured land
in the newly opened region to which they promptly removed. F a r
more important the settlement of this large territory brought in railroads a n d t h e establishment of new and prosperous towns. Even
before registration for lands began, the Rock Island Railway Company was constructing a line south through Lawton and trains
reached t h a t city early in the autumn of 1901. The Blackwell,
Enid, a n d Southwestern was also building a line south to Vernon
on which were located Hobart, Snyder, and Frederick. Soon after
the construction of these railroads, the Frisco extended a branch
from Oklahoma City southwest to Quanah, Texas, on which its officials laid o u t a town called Headrick only seven or eight miles
southeast of Navajoe. This marked the end of the little town which
had flourished for more than fifteen years. Every business establishment was promptly removed to Headrick. The smaller buildings
whether residences or shops and stores, were jacked up, placed on
wheels and hauled to the new town. Larger ones were wrecked
and t h e lumber either transferred to Headrick to be used in building there or sold to some settler for the construction of a farm house
or barn. The church and school house, both growing old and dilapidated, were torn down and a new school building erected on the road
half a mile west. The town site was acquired by a farmer who
plowed and planted the land in cotton and kaffir corn and Navajoe
was n o more. Even the school house did not remain long. The
consolidated school movement was sweeping the country so the
district was merged with four or five others and a new, modern
building called Friendship Consolidated School was erected a few
miles away. Only the little cemetery on its low, sandy hill and the
bits of broken glass and china occasionally turned u p by the farmer's
plow remain today as mute reminders of the thriving little town
which was f o r so many years the commercial and social center of a
large region.
Navajoe was never a large town as Oklahoma regards size now
but for many years it was the largest and most important one which
a traveler would pass near in a journey north over the Western
Cattle Trail from Vernon, Texas, to Woodward, a distance of some
two hundred miles. Moreover, it was the trading center for the
people of a n area far larger than is the so-called trade territory of
almost any Oklahoma town today with a population of upwards of
ten thousand.
Importance, however, does not depend entirely upon size.
Except for t h e fact that it was located near the border of the Kiowa-
Comanche reservation and in consequence had ,much trade from
these Indians as well as that of the ranchmen who leased their lands,
Navajoe was typical of hundreds of other little prairie towns of its
time, not alone in Western Oklahoma but throughout the length and
breadth of a great region extending north to the Canadian border.
Therein lies the justification for telling its story.
Yet, in some respects Navajoe was almost unique. Not so much
because of the picturesque and colorful character of many of its inhabitants, for every town has its interesting and colorful individuals,
but because Navajoe, like Peter Pan, never grew up. Always i t
was young, lusty, and vigorous with hopes and dreams for a future
that were never to be realized. Like the gay young soldier cut down
by the enemy's bullet, the little town never knew either the comforts
and responsibilities of middle life or the pains and infirmities of old
age. Some other towns secured a railrcad, a county seat, and industrial or commercial enterprises which caused them to grow to the
stature of thriving little cities with paved streets, water works,
chambers of commerce, and civic clubs. Others, less fortunate
found their trade and population drained away by improved roads
and automobiles to some local metropolis, leaving them only as
decadent, sleepy little villages where a few elderly people still cling
to rt spot hallowed by memories and live in a past now gone forever.
Navajoe met neither of these fates. In the full vigor of youth it
simply vanished from the earth.
Few strangers ever visit the site of Old Navajoe now. Once in
a great while an automobile, perhaps bearing the license tag of
another state, will stop a t the little grass-grown cemetery and a
gray-haired man alight to spend a few hours in cutting weeds or
planting some rose bushes about the grave of one who nurtured and
cared for him in his childhood of more than half a century ago.
Sometimes he may linger a t his task until the sun has gone down in
a radiant glory of crimson and gold and twilight begins to wrap
the wide prairie in an ever darkening mantle. Then as he returns
to his car and pauses for a moment to watch the first stars peep
over the dark bulk of the Navajo Mountains he may almost imagine
that he can hear the ring of ghostly spurs as some lean, brown cowhand rides in to visit his old familiar haunts where these pioneer
people lived and loved, and dreamed of the future in the ruddy dawn
of Western Oklahoma's history.